Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) competes for the attention of a new plumber who has moved across the street; Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross) struggles with her failing marriage and ungrateful family; Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) continues an affair with her sixteen-year-old gardener; and Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) copes with life as a stay-at-home mother of four.

Cherry conceived the idea for the series while watching coverage of the Andrea Yates murder trials, and was fascinated by how women lead lives of quiet desperation.

Mary Alice's close friends, Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross), and Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria), struggle to come to terms with the news.

Later, Mary Alice's son, Zach (Cody Kasch), awakens in the middle of the night to find his father, Paul (Mark Moses), unearthing a mysterious chest from the drained swimming pool in their backyard.

Susan, a divorced mother, takes interest in Mike Delfino (James Denton), a plumber who has recently moved to Wisteria Lane; however, she faces competition with neighbor Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), a promiscuous serial divorcée.

Elsewhere, Gabrielle, a former model, grows increasingly unhappy with her marriage to Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), who buys her love with extravagant gifts.

"[2] While watching television coverage of the Andrea Yates trials with his mother, Cherry turned to her and asked, "Can you imagine being so desperate that you would do that to your children?"

"[1] Cherry was intrigued by the idea that a "perfectly sane, rational woman could have the life she wanted, being a wife and mother ... and still have moments of insanity;" he began writing the pilot episode soon after.

[4] However, after his agent was arrested for embezzlement, Cherry signed with Paradigm Talent Agency, where he was advised to rewrite the script as a soap opera.

[5] Cherry completed the first draft of the pilot in April 2002 and pitched the script to CBS, NBC, Fox, HBO, Showtime, and Lifetime, all of which turned it down.

[1] They suggested renaming the series Wisteria Lane or The Secret Lives of Housewives, but Cherry insisted on keeping the original title.

[10] While Desperate Housewives, along with fellow new series Grey's Anatomy and Lost, would later help reverse ABC's flagging fortune,[11] network executives Lloyd Braun and Susan Lyne were fired shortly after greenlighting these risky and expensive pilots.

[16] Teri Hatcher was cast in the role of Susan Mayer, a single mother looking for love, after a second audition for ABC network executives.

[4] Cherry offered the role of Bree Van de Kamp, a "perfect homemaker" reminiscent of The Stepford Wives,[23] to Dana Delany three times.

[26] Roma Downey, Jeri Ryan, and Stacey Travis were also considered for the role,[4][27] while Nicollette Sheridan auditioned for the part and was cast as neighborhood tramp Edie Britt instead.

[37] Mark Moses was cast as Paul, Mary Alice's mysterious husband, and Cody Kasch as their troubled teenage son Zach.

[42] Shawn Pyfrom and Joy Lauren each made their debut appearances as Andrew and Danielle Van de Kamp, Bree's defiant teenage children.

Filming for the pilot was initially intended to take place in an actual Los Angeles neighborhood until the production team realized the difficulties that would ensue.

[45] Cherry and production designer Thomas A. Walsh wanted the street to recall the Eisenhower era and convey traditional American values, but appear modern at the same time.

[46] Walsh viewed episodes of Father Knows Best, My Three Sons, and Leave It to Beaver, among other television series, to capture the visual style of classic conservative America.

[6] While Walsh strove for a visually unified look for the street as a whole, he carefully designed the interior of each home to reflect the tastes and budgets of the characters.

[6] Jesse Metcalfe replaced Searles as John Rowland, as producers wanted to add more sexual appeal to the role "to justify why (Gabrielle) was having an affair.

[51] The role of Rex Van de Kamp was given to Steven Culp, who was Cherry's first choice for the part but was unavailable when the original pilot was filmed.

[43] To promote the series, ABC issued a laundry-themed campaign and purchased advertisement space in magazines such as InStyle and People and on dry-cleaning bags across the country.

[9] In the United Kingdom, the pilot aired on Channel 4 on January 5, 2005, and drew 4.8 million viewers, the highest premiere for a drama series on the network since ER nine years earlier.

Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the series premiere four out of four stars, commenting that it was as "involving as any new drama and funnier than any new sitcom [because it] matches high visual style with a witty-but-never arch sensibility.

[23] The San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman complimented the pilot's tonal diversity while expressing concern that American audiences would "tune in, get freaked out by the scattershot emotional chords and flip over to something safer.

"[62] He complimented the cast, stating that while Hatcher provides "the emotional core" of the series, "nearly everyone is intriguing in one way or another," and predicted that Eva Longoria would become the show's breakout star.

"[62] Tom Shales of The Washington Post praised the pilot, assessing, "In visual style, witty language, borderline surrealism and overall mad attitude, [the series] stands on a mountaintop all its own, the best new drama of the season and perhaps the best new comedy, too.